What kind of patient emergencies do therapists have?

amother

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:38 am

My child's therapist sometimes cancels very last minute (like 5 minutes after the session was supposed to start) for a work/patient related emergency and can sometimes be 20 minutes late to our visits due to patient related emergencies. I really like this therapist but am getting a bit frustrated and am trying to use my imagination to think about the kind of frequent emergencies that he is having because I'm started to get annoyed.
Please help!

amother

Slategray

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:47 am

amother OP wrote:

In my experience, frequent emergencies in this field are not typical.

amother

Oxfordblue

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:50 am

Does she specialize in intense things such as suicide, eating disorders or personality disorders?

Those are the things that would make a therapist have to be more on-call for emergencies. If she's a regular therapist, I would think this is odd or possibly made up.

amother

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:50 am

amother Slategray wrote:

In my experience, frequent emergencies in this field are not typical.

It's not weekly but in the last few months he has started late several times, twice very late like 20-30 minutes late. And the last minute cancellation only happened once but it's so frustrating to rearrange my schedule, make time and then no therapy.
It's a therapist that works with adults too if that changes anything regarding your experience.

amother

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:51 am

amother Oxfordblue wrote:

That's not why we go, so I don't know if he sees other patients with those diagnosis.

dankbar

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:51 am

Seems like he's taking someone who is in crisis as priority and giving away your child's appt for the other client, but I think the therapist can work around that like taking a client who has emergency after hours or if he needs to talk on phone to intervene, on break times or instead of canceling your child's appt maybe move around appts but either advance notice.

amother

Midnight

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:52 am

amother OP wrote:

Oh, if she works with adults too, & is in the mental health field, then it does make sense that there are emergencies.

amother

Oxfordblue

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:52 am

amother OP wrote:

Sounds a little strange. Maybe ask him about it to get a better feel?

"The past few sessions were canceled due to patient emergencies. Is that typical? It's difficult to schedule a session only to have it canceled on such short notice."

amother

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:54 am

amother Midnight wrote:

What type of therapist? It's weird for a child therapist to have work related emergencies often.

He doesn't only see children, also teens and adults too I believe. If that changes anything.

Has anyone here had a situation where they needed emergent help from a therapist for their child? I was hoping I'd hear of situations because my intuition is telling me that maybe these don't all need to be emergencies or maybe he has to make better boundaries with some patients. Like even if it's at the end of a session and something big comes up, end the session! But I'm not a therapist so I don't know and I don't have much experience with therapists.

amother

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:55 am

amother Daylily wrote:

This is absolutely unacceptable

That's what I'm thinking but I was hoping that I'd be told otherwise because he is so good for my child and gives us excellent on point parental guidance. I don't want to leave him, I'm just super annoyed right now.

amother

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:56 am

amother Midnight wrote:

Oh, if she works with adults too, & is in the mental health field, then it does make sense that there are emergencies.

What kind of emergencies could there be? Please enlighten me so I don't feel so upset.

amother

Oxfordblue

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:57 am

amother OP wrote:

That is really annoying. I would bring it up to him. It's not okay that he is canceling 5 minutes into the session!!! How many times has he canceled and how many appointments have been made?

amother

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:58 am

dankbar wrote:

I agree. But I could never say that. Like shouldn't he know that. Could there be emergencies that can't wait? That's what I'm hoping to get from this thread but so far no one has volunteered any lol. Or is it because we aren't in crises he feels okay canceling us over other patients?

amother

Oxfordblue

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:59 am

amother OP wrote:

What kind of emergencies could there be? Please enlighten me so I don't feel so upset.

The only emergencies where a therapist needs to be available right away are basically suicide attempts and when a patient is admitted to the hospital for whatever reason. But honestly, if the patient is being tended to by a professional, they should be able to wait till after a session.

I really doubt this is happening so frequently. Unless luck would have it, it only happens on the days you schedule your son's appointments.

dankbar

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 9:59 am

Seems more like a time mgmnt, punctuality, boundaries issues.

If he starts on an imp phone call, and then sees he running late and delays you, but he should be able to cut it short, for the next appt. If it happens in a blue moon ok, but every time, that's not good.

Or he needs to figure out his time better, if he thinks it will only take 10 min but then it ends up taking 30 minutes, then he shouldn't start at all if he has only 15 min between the sessions.

Sometimes therapist give themselves this mental extra minutes, because they assume client will be late with a few min so they have that grace period but if you are always very punctual then he should know that.

amother

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 10:01 am

amother Oxfordblue wrote:

That is really annoying. I would bring it up to him. It's not okay that he is canceling 5 minutes into the session!!! How many times has he canceled and how many appointments have been made?

This is the first that's been cancelled. And there have been several that he's been a few minutes late too. But at least twice he was 20-30 minutes late due to an unavoidable patient emergency. And the most annoying thing is that because they are zoom appointments, I just sit there waiting for him to get on. He can't text me at appointment time that he will be late because he's in the midst of this emergency so we can sit there for like 20 minutes waiting. The very late appointments have always been just parent appointments, for my child he's only been a few minutes late a few times.

amother

Thu, Mar 28 2024, 10:03 am

amother Oxfordblue wrote:

It's not like weekly or even monthly. But its more then once.
I was really hoping to get stories from this thread of times when ppls therapist had to extend their session or see them urgently very last minute. But sounds like that doesnt happen.